Stupid Bets
by Nelliel-Ni
Summary: Well, at least Tsunade got something out of her betting pool. And so did the people involved. AU


**A little something I wrote th other day :)**

**I have to satisfy my muse so expect a another chapter with a lemon soon! It'll be a oneshot until I get my shit together and write some smutty goodyness **

** *･゜ﾟ･*(^O^)/*･゜ﾟ･* **

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><p>Temari stared in horror at the board. Her fist clenched and she fought the urge to march over to his classroom and wipe that cocky smirk off of his face. With her fist. Of course she had no reason to do that, seeing as he had done nothing but win fair and square.<p>

He had, once again, won their bet. It was a stupid bet, as all bets were prone to be. She had just finished her classes for the day an_d just wanted to head home and rest her feet. _

_"Sabaku-san." A baritone voice, uncommon to the grounds she was in reached her ears. She turned with an awkward smile on her face._

_"Kouchou-sensei said she wants to see us." Temari nodded and went ahead to the principal's office, leaving him to follow her. It was unusual for Tsunade to call for the teachers besides the standard meetings. They both entered the room after recieving the typical response._

_"Enter." Temari held back a wince when she saw a couple of sake bottles beside the blond woman. Then she sighed in relief when she noticed Student Council President, Sakura Haruno, sitting delicately on one of the seats. Whenever a student was around, much less the Pres herself, Tsunade would not lift a finger towards her beloved drink._

_"Good, you're here." She motioned for them to sit. Temari smartly sat next to the girl. Though her companion wasn't stupid, Temari knew if things went bad Sakura would be a great mediator. Shikamaru eased into one of the seats._

_"I have called you here because" she stole a glance at the sake "Shizune is away on vacation. I can handle the workload but I need to bet on something. And I have none to bet with." She sighed at their blinking expressions. "I need you two to make a betting pool with me. You are the two smartest teachers of the city, if not the prefecture." Said two teachers could only nod their heads and wonder on the mystery that was the Principal._

_"What do you want us to bet on, Kouchou-sensei?" Tsunade sighed. She stole a glance at Sakura, who was too focused with her math homework to notice. She motioned for them to lean closer and she whispered._

_"You two will choose a student to win the mid-term exams. Whoever wins gets to choose the losers' punishment." Temari smirked. She knew exactly who she would pick._

"I'm so sorry, sensei." Sakura looked down. Temari laid a hand on her arm.

"It's fine. I shouldn't have dragged you for this. You neglected your duties as Kaichou, too." She took in a deep breath. "I'll go talk to Nara-sensei. He'll understand." Sakura's hand grasped around hers, stopping her.

"I'm not going to take the coward's way out. I lost and I will accept my punishment." Her eyes shined and Temari chuckled.

"Are you?" Both females turned to look at the Uchiha prodigy, the one that Shikamaru had chosen. Sakura's head inched up instinctively. She might have a crush on him but she wasn't backing down.

"Yes. Whatever you have chosen I will do it." She met his eyes head on and she caught a flicker before he looked at Temari. In turn she glared at him, giving him a silent message. If he hurt Sakura bad things were going to happen.

"Whatever." He murmured. Then after a while he stopped. "Aren't you comming?" Sakura blinked before excusing herself and taking off after him. Temari believed it was the start of something.

_'Now, to find that bastard.' _She marched over to his office, intent on carrying any punishment he had_._ Her hand had slid-opened the door, only to find the room empty. By the time she found out where he was she had circled the whole school. Ticked off, she banged the door of the roof open. It closed by itself and her eyes darted around searching for his figure.

She found him, typically, sleeping against the fence. She got closer and she noticed that his ponytail was very loose, as if enticing her to let his hair free.

Her face was a nice shade of pink when he woke up. He smirked in that haughty, i-didnt-even-try way of his that pissed her off. He stayed silent, waiting for her to make the first move.

She didn't say anything. She had lost and her pride was hurt. There was no way she would be the one to instigate her own punishment.

Still, he was taking too damn long.

"What's it going to be, Nara?" She planted a hand on her cocked hip. He let out a puff of smoke, watching it as it flew away. Then he flicked the death stick away and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"One week, huh?" His eyes watched her scrutinisingly, as if trying to figure out a plan. In the end he sat back down cross-legged and folded his hands. Temari had never seen him do it before but she had heard from the principal that it helped him think. The minutes ticked by but she waited until he opened his eyes.

"Let's go." Startled, she looked at him. He was leaving and she had no choise but to follow.

It wasn't weird that they left together. But it was weird that they did it in complete silence. Usualy she would've hit him once or twice already for being a chauvistic bastard. And he would have called her troublesome as many times as she did so. But now it was as if each was lost in their own thoughts.

Well, Temari was anyway. Shikamaru was looking at the clouds, not wanting to occupy his mind more than necassery. They came to the crossroad where their paths separated and both stoped.

"Well?" She asked, looking up at him.

"I have nothing." He said, closing his eyes. "I thought about it but there isn't something I can think of." That was a lie. He did have something in mind, but there was no way he was going to tell her and live to tell the tale.

"Okay, then I'll go home." She hadn't taken two steps before he spoke again.

"I need to stop smoking. Help me stop it." He threw her his packet and his lighter. "Throw the packet, keep the lighter. Later." Then he walked away, leaving her staring after him.

She trashed it and, once in her living room, examined the lighter closely. It was clearly old and an antique by the looks of it. It probably held a sentimental value for someone as lazy as Nara to keep it so diligently.

She flicked it open but no fire came out. She tried again a couple of times and came to the conclusion that it wasn't working anymore. Her eyes remained on the Zippo for quite a while. She could see the wear on it and, at the bottom, the initials of it's owner.

_S.A.? That's not Shikamaru's initials._ The lighter belonged to someone else, it seemed. Her phone buzzed and her heart leaped on her chest. She didn't recognise the number but she picked up anyway.

"Sensei?" Sakura's voice came through the receiver. Temari's blond brows frowned.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura shifted on her seat in Sasuke's bathroom. She had called on a whim, not exactly sure what to do.

"No. Nothing happened. Well, something happened but it wasn't bad or anything, just a harmless little thing tha"

"Sakura." She intergected. She knew the girl was prone to babbling when she was nervous. "What heppened?"

"Sasuke-kun asked me out." The line was silent for a while. "I mean, technicaly his punishment for me was to go out with him for the week, but I don't know if it counts." Temari chuckled.

"That brat probably likes you. I knew there was no way he would take part in this bet if he didn't have ulterior motives. Listen, just roll with it but" her tone took a grim turn "if he does something all it takes is a fast knee upwards."

"Sensei!" She heard Sakura's flustered cry. No way was she going to hurt him, or any other person for that matter. She bit her lip. "Thank you. I'll go out with him."

Temari sighed. So the emotionless, little Uchiha brat wasn't such an ice cube afterall. Her phone buzzed again.

"What?" She hissed. Looking through her students' reports was an awful expierience.

"Come over." She barely recognised the voice before he hung up. She shot up from her couch, cursing him all the way to his apartment. She rang the bell as many times as she could, just to piss him off.

He did look pissed off. Confused, too. And shirtless.

"What do you want?" He leaned on the doorway and her eyes strained to keep contact with his face. Not that his free hair framing his face wasn't a distraction.

"You called me, lazy boy." He blinked, as if he didn't register her words before retreating back inside his home, leaving the door open. She closed it behind her and was pleasantly surprised to see a very clean room.

"I didn't call you. Maybe someone got the wrong number." He sat on his couch, waiting for her to do the same. She didn't.

"This" her hand took out the lighter from her bag instead "is important, right?" He glanced at it and nodded, not offering any further explanation. "Take it back." Her hand stretched to his direction.

"I only smoke with this lighter. If I have it I'll start again." She put it back and sat on a lone chair. "Besides, the punishment was that you'd help me quit." He pointed out and she nodded.

"Ok then. Goodnight." She didn't even look back as she closed the door softly behind her. She didn't want to help him just because that would mean he owed her. She hated asking for help and a looming favor above her head was a temptation.

She gripped her bag tighter when the cold of winter bit harsher. She had only donned a jacket and now she wished for a heavier coat.

"Temari!" A call of her name made her stop in her tracks. Shikamaru was running to her in just a tee and sweats. She felt a slight leap in her chest but it was squashed by the thunderring of her heart.

He caught his breath for a couple of minutes and then he outstretched his hand.

"I need the lighter." He said and she could see something flash in his eyes. Not addiction for the drug that the lighter fueled but something else.

"Can't. Sorry but you told me to keep it." He blinked, as if having not expected that answer. "Since it is important I suppose you are attached to it in a special way." Her eyes looked up at him expectantly and he sucked a breath in. "I'm helping you quit, remember?

He breathed a simple 'yes' and walked away.

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><p>Temari kept it close to her person at all times. Normally, she would have stashed it in a corner until she had to give it back. Then again if Nara wasn't involved this wouldn't have happened altogether.<p>

It was his thought that made her take out the lighter to stare at it every time she had a break. Shikamaru didn't talk to her about it again after the first night and the week was slowly brought to an end.

She somehow knew to meet him on the roof. He was there, sleeping again. This time he didn't wake and she made no effort to help him either. She just watched him.

In the end she had to go to class and she didn't know if she should leave the lighter with him or make him seek her out. She glanced at him again. This had to stop now. She took out the lighter and gently placed it in his open palm. A quick kiss on his cheek and she was gone.

Her cheeks flushed a bit at her childish actions. Then they cooled as she thought that they had no reason to meet now. It sounded needy in her ears but she wanted to see him as much as possible.

'Get your shit together, Sabaku. No time to daydream.' She wasn't even there for the entire lesson. Her movements were mechanical and she made a couple of mistakes that she was more than ashamed about.

She sighed on her scarf as she walked towards her car. She would need a few days away from him to cool off and then everything would go back to normal.

"Temari." He was leaning against the driver's door and she knew he wouldn't move until they talked.

"Why did you return it?"

"The week is over." She answered simply, hoping he would leave it at that. Obviously, she didn't take his single-minded determination into account.

"How do you know I won't start again?" She scoffed at him.

"Please. You could never start something that is already over. You didn't even need my help. You could quit in a heartbeat if you wanted to." He smiled at her.

"You really trust me don't you." It wasn't a question. Both knew it.

"I do." She stared into his eyes. He outstretched a hand and took hers. He then proceeded to pull her to his chest. Ignoring her cries of protest, he held her tight against him. He waited until she went silent and stopped struggling.

"I lost to you. I may have won that one bet but you" he breathed "you won the fucking war, Temari." His hand caressed her cheek. "I like you."

Her brows shot up, not expecting a sudden confession. She looked up at him, one of the rare occurances where no snarky comeback came to mind. She ran her tongue on her lower lip.

"I wasn't aware we were on a war, much less that I won." He didn't say anything but his eyes spoke volumes as he waited for a proper answer. Temari took a deep breath in and squared her shoulders, knowing that whatever answer she gave would change a lot of things between them.

"I like you too." He didn't react, except for the lazy look he shot towards the school. Then he hauled her up to him, his lips softly settling over hers. None of them moved for a while, too content too.

A loud whistle made them slowly break apart and glare at the students. The most famous group of the school was a few feet away and steadily approaching the couple. Sakura led it, happily tagging a reluctant Uchiha and an overly-excited Uzumaki holding hands with Hinata.

Sakura and Naruto smiled brightly at them.

"It was about time, sensei." Temari flushed a bit. The girl was too intuitive sometimes. Naruto's grin took a pervy turn.

"Damn, a little more and we'd have gotten an eyefull." Shikamaru shrugged and held Temari closer. Sakura smacked Naruto's arm. Temari jumped a bit when she felt his hand on her hip, lazily tracing circles upwards. She shot him a glare.

Sasuke lifted a fine brow and then shifted towards them.

"Get a room." He hissed and dragged the others away, ignoring Naruto's hoots and claims that he wanted to see how adults did.

A trickle went down her throat and a chuckle escaped her. She gave a short, smoky laugh and tiptoed a kiss on her, now official, boyfriend's lips.

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><p><strong>So yeah there will be a lemon. If you dont like lemons then dont read it <strong>(⁎⁍̴̛͂▿⁍̴̛͂⁎)*✲ﾟ*｡⋆

**Ciaossu,**

**Nelly**


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